A new exhibition at Getty Museum will present rare early American photographs

We are used to our digital realities, where social media create a thirst for documentation of the most mundane aspects of our daily lives, and ubiquitousness of images to some degree lessened the value of photographic art. But in the mid-nineteenth century U.S., for instance, photography served a higher purpose: they were instrumental in debates about the country and its place in the world, and also documented the development of the nation. Getty Museum now offers the audience a chance to get a rare insight into the past, exploring forces and movements that shaped the country’s character.

On the view from February 27th through May 27th, Paper Promises exhibition features rare 19th-century works of photography pioneers, including portraits of notable political and cultural figures, as well as images from the Civil War. The exhibition will include paper negatives and paper photographs, as well as some examples of other pioneering photographic techniques: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, albumen silver prints, a pannotype, and an ivorytype.

A new exhibition at Getty Museum will present rare early American photographs

We are used to our digital realities, where social media create a thirst for documentation of the most mundane aspects of our daily lives, and ubiquitousness of images to some degree lessened the value of photographic art. But in the mid-nineteenth century U.S., for instance, photography served a higher purpose: they were instrumental in debates about the country and its place in the world, and also documented the development of the nation. Getty Museum now offers the audience a chance to get a rare insight into the past, exploring forces and movements that shaped the country’s character.

On the view from February 27th through May 27th, Paper Promises exhibition features rare 19th-century works of photography pioneers, including portraits of notable political and cultural figures, as well as images from the Civil War. The exhibition will include paper negatives and paper photographs, as well as some examples of other pioneering photographic techniques: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, albumen silver prints, a pannotype, and an ivorytype.